


Growing Pains

by bearpantaloons



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: De-Aged Kara Danvers, F/F, Humor, and Lena gets to babysit, basically Kara is baby Groot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 10:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearpantaloons/pseuds/bearpantaloons
Summary: During a routine investigation, Kara is mysteriously turned into a baby and the superfriends have to figure out how to get her back to normal, while also making sure her diapers are clean.





	Growing Pains

**Author's Note:**

> This is another prompt I received. Thanks to my buddy KelseyO for reading it over for me. If you haven’t read her fics yet, head over there right after you finish this one. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. I can be found on tumblr @bearpantaloons

“Ready, go!” Kara says, speeding down the street.

“Oh, come on! That’s not even fair,” James yells from inside his much heavier Guardian suit.

“I win!” Kara grins triumphantly, raising her arms in the air.

“You… you cheated,” James says breathing heavily, clearly out of breath, which was unheard of. He was in _great_ shape.

 _“Are you two done with your little competition?”_ Winn asks through their communication devices. “ _We still have alien activity to investigate.”_

“Party pooper,” Kara grumbles.

She and James walk around and look for anything suspicious. When they’re just about to give up, Kara hears what sounds like a baby crying somewhere down the street. “I’m going to go look inside that building. I’ll be right back.”

She flies up to the top floor and looks through the windows, but she doesn’t see anything. One of the windows is unlocked, so she lifts it up and floats through, checking each room, trying to find the source of the crying.

“Hello?” she calls out. “Baby? Are you in here somewhere? Cry once for yes, cry twice for no.”

 _“Find anything yet?”_ James asks through her earpiece.

“Not yet. I swear that I heard a baby in here.”

 _“Are you sure? The building has been abandoned for the past three years,”_ Winn says.

“I don’t know. Maybe there are squatt—“ Kara stops mid-sentence.

 _“_ Kara?” James taps his earpiece. “Winn? Do you have eyes on Kara?”

_“That’s a negative. I knew body cams were a good idea.”_

“Okay, I’m heading in. Watch my six.”

 _“I always do,”_ Winn snickers.

James rolls his eyes and kicks in the boarded-up front door, then scales the stairs and begins clearing each room. When he gets to the last one down the hallway, he peeks inside, but there’s no one in the front room. He slowly walks inside, holding his shield up. Rounding the corner of the last room, he hears some gurgling inside of the bathroom. He looks inside and sees a… baby? She has blonde hair and blue eyes and she’s wearing a super-suit onesie.

“What the hell? Kara?” The baby giggles and reaches up toward James. Her golden ringlets shine in the sunlight and her smile is just as wide as it always is.

_“What’s going on?”_

“Uh, I think I found Kara. I-I don’t—I’m coming back. Hang tight.” He picks up the tiny child and cradles her in his arms, wrapping her up in her cape. She claps excitedly and smiles up at him, touching his cheek with her tiny baby hand. “Oh boy. How are we going to explain this?”

James arrives at Winn’s van and opens the back doors, climbing inside and holding tiny infant Kara.

“What. Is that.” Winn points at the child in James’ arms and recoiling slightly at the sight of her.

“I think this is Kara,” James says, tickling her belly with his index finger. Kara giggles and sputters, wriggling around in his arms.

“Last time I checked, Kara was a grown-up alien who could walk and speak. This _thing_ needs her nappies changed and will roll around like a turtle if you lay her on her back.”

“Well, how do you explain her little super-suit and Kara vanishing?”

Winn shrugs his shoulders and stares at the small human smiling at him. “I guess we should get her back to the DEO and figure out what to do with her. Alex is going to murder us.”

//

“Cover her ears, James.”

James holds Kara’s head to his chest, pressing one ear to his body and covering the other with his hand.

“What the hell did you guys do?!” Alex demands. “I sent you on a routine investigation that should have been done within an hour and you come back with a baby Supergirl. What am I supposed to do with her?” Alex flails her arms in the air and points to her sister, who is currently babbling and kicking her little sausage legs out in front of her.

Both James and Winn wince at the screaming agent in their faces. Alex snatches Kara out of James’ arms and glares at both of them. “Fix it.” She storms off to run some preliminary tests on her newly-infantilized sister. She draws blood with the kryptonite needles and sets the vials to the side. Baby Kara reaches out and grabs a lock of Alex’s hair, squealing with glee.

Alex sighs. “When I said I wanted kids, this is not what I had in mind.” Alex sniffs the air and makes a disgusted face. “Really, Kara?” Baby Kara giggles and claps her little hands together. Alex picks her up and walks back into the lobby, shoving cash into James’ chest. “Go buy baby formula, diapers, and whatever else a baby needs.”

“We don’t—“ Winn cuts himself off when he sees Alex’s death glare. “Okay, we’re gonna go. Let’s go, James.” He pulls the other man by the arm and rushes out of the building as fast as possible. As they leave, Alex’s phone rings and she sees Lena’s name come across the screen.

“Great,” she sighs, answering the call. “Hey, Lena.”

_“Alex, have you heard from Kara? She was supposed to meet me for lunch and I haven’t heard from her. She isn’t answering her phone, either.”_

Alex stares at the baby. “Um, she got called off on some DEO business. Probably got held up and just didn’t have time to check in with you. It was a pretty serious attack. I’m sure she’ll call you soon.”

_“Oh, okay. She usually lets me know if she can’t make it. Hey, Alex?”_

“Mhm?” Alex answers, trying to stop Kara from grabbing at the phone and pushing buttons.

_“Has Kara been acting strangely lately? Or, has she mentioned anything about… me?”_

_Well, if by strange, you mean acting like a baby, yes._ “No, not that I can recall. She’s been herself – you know, bubbly, child-like glee. And, um, she just talks about your lunches together, nothing odd or out of the ordinary.”

_“Okay. Thanks, Alex. I’ll wait for her to call, then. Bye.”_

Alex hangs up and pinches the bridge of her nose. She looks at her infantile sister. “You’re going to be in so much trouble with her if we don’t figure out how to un-baby you soon.”

Winn and James finally come back with arms full of baby supplies and not a moment too soon. Alex had resorted to cutting a big rectangle in the middle of one of J’onn’s spare capes and using it as a diaper. Alex mixes the baby formula and starts feeding Kara while simultaneously calling Eliza to ask how to take care of a baby, without telling her that the baby is Kara. Five bottles later, Kara is finally satiated and napping in her crib that James put together in the middle of the debriefing room. Winn was researching for any possible ways that Kara could have been de-aged.

J’onn stomps into the room, holding his cape. “Does someone want to explain why my cape has a big hole in it?”

Winn and James point to Alex. “Wow, thanks guys,” she says. “J’onn, come with me.” They walk to the debriefing room and J’onn raises an eyebrow.

“Why is there a baby in my debriefing room?”

“That baby is Kara,” Alex says, waiting for the barrage of questions of why and how this happened. Much to Alex’s surprise, J’onn has no words, not that he was a very wordy martian in the first place, but still.

“How?” is all he can say.

“We don’t know. She was out with James and Winn on a routine investigation and when they came back, they had a baby. James said she entered an abandoned building when it happened, but he didn’t see if anyone else was in there.”

“Well, this is going to complicated things. We’ll have to work overtime until we can get Kara back to her adult self. I assume Winn is researching this.”

“Yes, he’s looking through the archives for any leads.”

As if she can sense their nervousness, Kara starts to fuss and begins wailing from the crib. Alex picks her up and holds her out to J’onn, who looks at her like she has tentacles and barbs all over her body.

“Come on, Papa J’onn. It’s your turn.”

“No, absolutely not. I am no—“ Alex shoves Baby Kara into his arms and he holds her, well away from his body, unsure what to do. Baby Kara laughs and claps her hands, wiggling around in his arms.

At the end of the day, Alex takes her sister home with her, along with the crib and all of the baby items. She puts Kara to bed and flops onto her couch with a cold beer in hand. Her phone starts to ring and she sees Lena’s name on the screen again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She answers the phone, “Hey, Lena.”

“ _Alex? I still haven’t heard from Kara. Is she okay?”_

Alex takes a big swig of her beer. “She’s recovering. Today was hard.”

“ _Is she hurt? Where is she?”_

“She’s fine, Lena.”

Kara starts crying from her crib in Alex’s office.

“ _Is that a baby?”_

“It’s just the TV. Hey, Lena, I have to get going. I’ll have Kara contact you soon, okay? Don’t worry.”

//

Lena absolutely worries.

She was used to being kept in the dark when it came to DEO business or Kara’s whereabouts, but something was off. Alex was being more cryptic than normal. She drinks the rest of the contents in her wine glass and calls a car to come pick her up.

When the car arrives, she instructs the driver to take her to Kara’s apartment first. She knocks on the door for five minutes before she accepts that there’s no one there. Next, she has the driver take her to Alex’s. When she knocks on the door, she can hear the groan on the other side. The door opens and she’s faced with a very annoyed DEO agent.

“Lena, this is a really bad time.”

Lena pushes right past her. “Alex, I know something is up. Why won’t you tell me where Kara is? If something happened to her, I need to know. Please.”

The sound of a baby crying echoes through the house. Alex groans, “I just got her to go back to sleep.”

“You have a baby?” Lena asks, eyebrows arched.

“Uh, kind of. Hang on.” Alex leaves the room to grab Kara and carries her back into the entranceway.

“Whose baby is that?”

“It’s a long story.”

Kara sees Lena and gives her a big toothless smile. She reaches out for her and Lena tries to wriggle out of Alex’s arms. Lena looks terrified and shakes her head.

“Oh no, no way.”

“She wants you. Just hold her for a minute.”

Begrudgingly, Lena takes Kara into her arms and rocks her slowly. Kara falls asleep within seconds and Alex smirks. Typical Kara.

“Can you take her back now?”

“You’re doing fine, Lena. Here, have a seat.” Lena sits down on the couch. Alex grabs another beer and joins her. She sets the beer in front of Lena and smiles as Lena looks down at Kara.

“So, uh, whose baby is this again?”

“Take a good look at her.”

Lena looks down at the baby in her arms and she wakes up then and looks up into the CEO’s green eyes with her sparkling blue ones. She smiles and pats Lena’s cheeks with her tiny hands.

“Kara?”

Alex nods. “It happened earlier today. We don’t know what caused it.”

“I—what—“ Lena is rendered speechless as she looks down at the baby in her arms. Alex gets a phone call and steps away for a moment, leaving Lena alone with the Kryptonian infant. Kara appears to be happy enough, getting rocked in Lena’s arms and doesn’t take her eyes off of her. “You’ve gotten yourself into a fine mess again, haven’t you?” Lena chides the baby.

Alex hangs up her phone and grabs a diaper bag from the nursery. “Hey, Lena, I’ve got some DEO business to attend to. I need a huge favor. Can you watch Kara for a few hours while I take care of this?”

Lena stammers and shakes her head violently. “What? No, I can’t, Alex. I have a lot of work to catch up on and I don’t know the first thing about taking care of a baby.”

Alex puts her hands on Lena’s arms. “Please, Lena. It’ll just be for a few hours.”

Lena sighs and looks down at Kara, who’s fallen asleep. This shouldn’t be too difficult if she just stays asleep like this. “Fine, just a few hours.”

“Thank you, Lena,” Alex says, picking up her bag and keys. “I’ll let you know when I’m on my way back.” And just like that, she’s gone and Lena is left alone with a child, who used to be her adult friend. She just has to babysit for a few hours. Easy.

//

Six hours later, Alex still isn’t back and Lena is holding a wailing baby in her arms, trying to get her to calm down. She’s tried everything. She’s tried feeding her, changing her, rocking her, singing, sitting, standing, and Kara still screams bloody murder.

“Kara, _please,_ ” Lena begs. “I don’t know what you want.” She gently kisses the top of Kara’s head and the crying stops immediately. Lena holds Kara out and raises an eyebrow. Kara is smiling her toothless smile and waving her tiny hands in the air. Lena chuckles lightly. “Really? That’s all you wanted?” She gives her another kiss on her cheek and Kara giggles. Lena rocks Kara to sleep and sets her down in her crib before falling asleep on Alex’s couch. The sound of the front door opening wakes her up an hour later and she sits up and sees Alex’s exhausted face.

“I’m so sorry, Lena. It took longer to contain the incident than I thought, and then Winn said he thinks he’s found a way to reverse Kara’s de-aging and wanted me to look at it. Did she cause you any problems?”

Lena shrugs and stands up. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Alex nods. “Great. So, uh, I have another favor to ask.” Lena narrows her eyes at the agent. “I need you to take Kara tomorrow, too.”

Lena’s mouth gapes open. “What? No. _No way_ , Alex. I have meetings all morning and my office isn’t exactly baby-proof. There’s no possible way I can take her tomorrow.”

//

The next day, Lena instructs Jess to cancel all of her meetings and go out and purchase a playpen, baby-proofing materials, and whatever toys children are playing with these days. Alex gave her some formula, diapers, and a baby bjorn to take with her. She got some strange looks when she walked into her building with a baby strapped to her chest, but people knew better than to ask questions.

Hours later, Jess returns with a flat cart full of supplies and Lena starts unloading things. When Jess stands at the door and doesn’t move, Lena looks up at her.

“Is there anything else, Jess?”

Jess shifts uncomfortably and stares at Kara.

“Oh, just spit it out,” Lena says sharply.

Jess jumps and clears her throat. “Whose baby is that, Ms. Luthor?”

“It’s… it’s a friend’s. She had some important things to take care of and asked me to look after her today.” As she continues moving boxes and Kara’s feet dangle from the baby bjorn, Lena can still feel Jess’ eyes on her and she stands up straight and sighs. “What is it, Jess?”

“I—um, do you need help assembling things?”

Taking stock of all the boxes strewn across her office floor, she exhales and nods. “Yes, thank you. That would be really helpful.”

After a couple hours, Lena has moved things around and a corner of her office has been dubbed the new nursery. Jess puts together the playpen and lays down some blankets in the center of it, along with some stuffed toys. Lena unclasps the baby bjorn and sets Kara down in the playpen. When she’s convinced that Kara won’t suddenly float out of the pen, she excuses Jess and sits back at her desk.

After getting virtually no work done, due to there being an _infant_ in her office, there’s a knock on her door. Jess walks in with a nervously apologetic look on her face.

“Ms. Luthor, I tried to cancel all of your meetings and appointments, but Mr. Rush insisted on seeing you, saying he cannot wait for you to reschedule.”

“Christ, just what I needed. Jess, I need you to watch Ka—the baby while I’m gone.”

“M-me?”

“Yes, she’s sleeping now, anyway. If she wakes up, just give her a quick peck on the head and give her a bottle. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Lena grabs a legal pad and makes a mental note to give Jess a raise. Fitzgerald Rush is her least favorite board member, but he was appointed by her mother years ago. The only reason why she hasn’t had him removed is because he owns the company who provides the software used to program their security tech. After about an hour of schmoozing, Lena is finally able to get away from her meeting and heads back to her office. She hears a familiar ear-piercing wail coming from behind the door and when she opens it, she sees Jess trying to calm a very distressed Kara.

“I tried kissing her and giving her a bottle, Ms. Luthor. Nothing worked,” Jess says, looking about ready to cry herself. Lena takes Kara away from her and presses her lips to the top of Kara’s head and she stops crying.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jess groans. Lena hides her amusement and excuses her assistant.

“Did you really have to give her such a hard time, Kara? I actually like this assistant,” Lena says while holding Kara close. The rest of the day is filled with multiple feedings (and diaper changes), trying to get Kara to nap, trying to get Kara to allow Lena to even put her down, and finding excuses not to leave her office for any reason. When Alex finally calls her that evening and tells her to bring Kara to the DEO, she almost jumps for joy in the middle of her office.

Alex has a car pick her up and Lena gathers her things and all of the baby’s things. She sets Kara in the car seat and when they arrive at the DEO, Winn is there to meet her.

“Okay, I’ve been testing some things and I think I’ve got something that will work to get Kara back to her regular age. Follow me.” Lena unbuckles Kara and walks behind Winn, who takes them to a small lab inside of the building. There’s a clear cell at one end of the room with a metallic arm hanging from the ceiling, along with other monitors and machinery. “Put Kara inside of the cell,” he instructs her.

Lena opens the door to the cell and sets Kara down in the center. A few moments later, Alex and J’onn join them in the room, while Winn punches a few things into a computer.

“This should do it,” he says as he pushes a lever up. The robotic arm moves around and points directly at Kara. Lena gulps at the sight and watches Kara wriggle on the floor. She hears the contraption powering up and she braces herself for whatever happens next. A tiny beam fires from the arm in the ceiling and fires straight at Kara and the entire cell starts smoking. Everyone holds their breath and waits for the smoke to settle.

Lena sees a shadow emerge from the cell and it’s a wobbly toddler with golden curls ambling toward them. She looks up at everyone and smiles.

“ _Kara up_?” she says in Kryptonese, holding her arms out.

“Oh, crap,” is all that Winn can say.

“Winn!” Alex yells.

“I’m sorry! I must have miscalculated.”

J’onn sighs disapprovingly and leaves the lab without a word. Kara tugs on Lena’s skirt and looks up with wide eyes.

“ _Kara up_?” she repeats. Lena lifts her up and sets her on her hip. Kara wraps her arms around her neck tightly.

“Okay, Kara, I have to go back to work and catch up on some things. Hang out with your sister.”

Alex holds out her hands. “ _Come on, kid. Let’s go,”_ she says in her rough Kryptonese.

“ _No_!” Kara screams. “ _Kara stay_!”

Lena looks at Alex for help, but the other Danvers sister just shrugs. “Looks like she wants to stay with you.”

“Oh, come on, Alex. I had her all day today and that was hard enough. I got nothing done. Just take her.” When Lena tries to hand Kara over, Kara screams in her ear and holds on tighter. “Kara! Seriously!”

“I guess even Kryptonians go through the terrible twos,” Winn says, laughing to himself. Lena glares at him and he shuts up quick.

“I can’t take her, Alex. My apartment is not equipped for a two-year-old Kryptonian and I don’t even know how to talk to her!”

Alex rubs her toddler sister’s back gently. “ _Kara, honey, do you want to come with me_?”

Kara shakes her head and pouts. “ _No_!”

“ _You want to stay with Lena_?”

Kara nods while still frowning and holding onto Lena’s neck.

Alex shrugs. “Sorry, Lena, Kara’s made her decision. I’ll teach you a few Kryptonese sentences and it should work, at least for tonight. I can get you an alien translator tomorrow.”

Kara grins at Lena and kisses her cheek, giggling. Lena can’t help but laugh and gives up whatever fight she had left. Alex takes the car seat out of the other car and puts it in her own. She drives Lena and Kara to pick up the next size of diapers before driving them home. Winn and James moved the crib and all of the other baby things from Alex’s apartment to Lena’s ahead of time. Alex waits until they’re relatively settled before leaving.

“Can you say goodbye to your sister?” Lena asks while waving to Alex.

Kara waves a floppy arm at her sister. “ _Bye, sister_!”

Alex snorts and waves back. “I owe you one, Lena.”

“I think you owe me more than one, Alex,” Lena deadpans. Alex laughs as she closes the door behind her, leaving Lena alone with a toddler she has no idea how to take care of. She looks at the child on her hip and sighs. “Well, I guess I should give you a bath.” She walks into her bathroom and starts running the water and taking off Kara’s clothes, but the tiny Kryptonian darts out of the room and races down the hallway. “Kara!” Lena shouts at her.

Lena chases after the child and she should be able to catch up to someone who has legs the size of hotdog buns, but she’s surprisingly fast. Giggles bounce off of the walls, coming from seemingly everywhere and Lena does her best to cut Kara off, but she’s a quick little thing. Finally, Lena’s able to corner her in the study and picks her up, Kara squealing and kicking until she’s put down on the bathroom floor. Lena locks the door behind them and makes sure the water isn’t too hot. She removes the rest of Kara’s clothing and places her inside of the tub. Kara splashes water onto Lena, which causes her to gasp.

“Kara! Do you know how expensive this shirt is?” She huffs and unbuttons the shirt, tossing it into the corner of the room. Kara simply laughs and continues playing in the water. Lena shakes her head and starts to lather some soap, washing Kara’s body and then moving on to her hair.

Once she’s done bathing her best friend, which is not something she would ever think she’d have to do, she finds the softest towel and wraps Kara up in it. She realizes that none of the clothes she has with her will fit anymore, so she finds an old t-shirt and throws it over Kara’s head and puts a diaper on.

“You really need to get potty trained,” Lena tells her.

 “ _Kara go potty_ ,” the child responds.

“Wait, did you just—“ Lena throws her head back in frustration, takes Kara to the bathroom, and changes her diaper. She carries her to the guest bedroom, where the crib is set up and puts Kara inside. “Okay, Kara, go to sleep and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“ _Kara kiss_!” Kara pouts and pats her cheek.

Lena rolls her eyes and kisses Kara on the cheek and on her forehead; the child seems satisfied enough. Lena leaves the room and keeps the door of guest bedroom open while she makes her way into her own bedroom. She changes her clothes and goes through her nightly routine. Having a child is _exhausting_. It’s not even her child – and she’s not even supposed to _be_ a child. Lena sighs as she lies down on her soft pillows. She misses the adult Kara. Having a two-year-old for a best friend leaves quite a lot to be desired. As soon as she drifts to sleep, she’s awoken by something clawing at the edge of her bed. Lena sits up and sees Kara climbing up the mattress.

“ _Kara sleep with Lena_ ,” the child says proudly.

“How did you—“ Lena shakes her head. “No, darling, you need to sleep in the crib. Come on.” She walks gets out of bed and picks Kara up, taking her back to the guest room and setting her down.

“ _No! Kara sleep with Lena_!” Kara stands at the bars and starts to shake them. Lena’s eyes widen when she hears wood start to crack and the bars splinter in half.

“Um, well in that case,” Lena says, picking Kara up again. She looks at the toddler. “I thought you didn’t get your powers until puberty.” Kara laughs and hugs Lena. They walk back to the master bedroom and Lena lies Kara down in the center of the bed, climbing into one of the other sides. Kara immediately snuggles up to Lena and falls right to sleep. Lena can’t help but drape her body around the small child, trying to protect her from everything, the way Kara usually does for everyone else.

//

The next day, Lena wakes up to the sound of her alarm and Kara rubs her face sleepily.

“All right, darling, time to get up,” Lena says gently, getting out of bed and carrying a sleepy Kara into the bathroom. They both get dressed and Lena realizes she doesn’t have any food appropriate for a child, so she’ll have to grab something on the way. She grabs her bag, the diaper bag, and Kara before leaving her apartment. Thank goodness Alex had the foresight to move the car seat into her car the night before. After Kara is strapped in, Lena drives them to L-Corp. When they arrive, she grabs a small box of cereal and a banana from the restaurant in the lobby before heading up to her office. She sets Kara inside the playpen and calls Jess into her office.

A few moments later, there’s a knock on the door and Jess peeks inside. “You wanted to see me, Ms. Luthor?”

“Yes, come in, Jess. I need you to purchase more children’s toys, but this time for someone around two years old. And also, cancel my appointments and postpone my meetings again, please.” Jess’ eyes scan the room and the stop on Kara.

“Um, right away, Ms. Luthor. Is that—“

“Sibling of the child from yesterday. Mom’s still busy with some things.” She makes another mental note to give Jess another raise if she stops asking questions about Kara. Jess nods dumbly and waits for any further instructions.

“That’ll be all, Jess. Let me know when you’re back with the toys. Oh, and see what you can find on Kryptonese. I, uh, I’ve been meaning to learn.”

“I—um—yes, ma’am.” She leaves the room and Kara waves from the playpen. It doesn’t take long for Jess to finish shopping and return with bags full of toys. She sets some of them inside of the playpen after opening them and making sure all of the plastic is removed. Lena smiles when she sees Kara’s eyes open wide with excitement.

“ _Kara toys_!” She claps her hands putting her hands on all of the things surrounding her. Jess puffs up with pride and kneels down at the edge of the playpen. Kara holds one of them up to her. “ _Jess play with Kara_?”

“I think the wants me to play with her,” Jess looks at Lena, who smiles at her and silently gives her permission. She takes the toy from Kara and pushes some of the buttons, different sounds ringing through, entertaining Kara to no end. An odd, warm feeling fills Lena’s chest while she watches Jess and Kara play together, and she’s not sure what it is. While the two of them are preoccupied, Lena takes the opportunity to get some work done. While she's working, one of the ladies from R&D drops by with an earplug that supposedly translates all known alien languages.

“Uh, Ms. Luthor?” Jess calls out after about a half hour.

“Yes, Jess?”

“I… I think she needs to be changed.”

Lena looks up at Kara, who is smiling back at her. “ _Kara go potty_!”

“You’ve got to be fu—“ she sighs. “Okay, I’ll go change her.” She walks over and lifts Kara out of the playpen, grabs the diaper bag, and makes her way to her private bathroom. After she’s done cleaning up, she walks back out and looks at the time. “Jess, you can head home. I just need to finish up the proposal for the board and I’ll get this little one back to her mommy.” She tickles Kara’s belly and the toddler giggles and hugs Lena.

“Goodnight, Ms. Luthor. I’ll see what I can find on Kryptonese and e-mail it to you,” Jess says as she leaves the office.

“ _Bye bye, Jess_!” Kara waves.

After Jess leaves, Lena sends Alex a text and asks when she can drop Kara off. Alex replies and says she’s going to be busy with DEO business and begs her to take care of Kara for one more night. Lena sighs and rests her head in her hands. She feels a tug on her skirt and looks down at a tiny head of golden curls.

“ _Is Lena sad_?”

Lena looks at her warmly and smiles. “No, darling, I’m not sad. I just miss… the adult you, that’s all.” Kara looks up at her questioningly and her little tummy rumbles. “Oh dear, it’s past dinner time, isn’t it?” Lena is used to skipping meals, but she can’t really do that when she has a child to take care of.

She shuts off her laptop and packs up their things, carrying Kara on her hip. On her way home, she stops by the grocery store to buy some food and quickly realizes that she has no idea what a two-year-old eats. Kara dangles her legs from the shopping cart and reaches her tiny little arms out to try and grab everything she possibly can.

“ _Chicken nuggies_!” she exclaims, pointing at a box of dinosaur nuggets. Lena opens the freezer and takes a box out.

“These, Kara? Really?”

Kara nods enthusiastically and Lena sighs, tossing box after box into her cart. They continue walking down the aisles and, so far, they’ve gotten dino nuggets, chocolate chips, goldfish crackers, and ice cream. They turn down another aisle and a woman stops in her tracks and looks at her.

“Lena?”

Lena looks over to where her name is being called and swears to herself.

“Veronica, hi. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yes, and who’s this little one?”

“ _Kara_!”

“This is, uh, Kiera. I’m looking after her for a friend while they’re away on business.”

“I see. Well, when you’re done babysitting, you should give me a call. It’s been far too long since one of our... dinners.”

Lena pulls her lips into a straight line as Veronica inches her way closer to Lena and drags a hand down her arm slowly. Kara frowns and sneezes right on Veronica’s silk shirt.

“Oh, bless you, darling.”

Veronica sneers and takes a handkerchief out, wiping her shirt off gingerly. “Well, I guess I should be off. Call me.” When she’s out of earshot, Lena chuckles and looks down at Kara.

“Kara Danvers, are you jealous?”

Kara pouts in her seat and doesn’t answer. Lena laughs loudly and kisses the top of Kara’s head. “Don’t worry, I only have room for one girl in my life and that’s you, at the moment.”

Kara smiles up at her and Lena heads for the check-out lines. When they get to Lena’s apartment, Kara insists on carrying all of the grocery bags, which are almost as big as she is. Lena unpacks everything and starts warming up the oven for the nuggets. She gets out the ingredients for her salad and turns her back just for a second. A crash rings in her ears and she whips back around to see Kara dangling off the edge of the counter, a box of nuggets on fire, and her counter broken in half.

“Kara! Jesus, what are you doing?” She sets Kara down and tries to find her fire extinguisher, but by the time she does, Kara has already doused the flames with her ice breath. Lena tosses the extinguisher on the floor and rubs her face with her hand. The fire alarm goes off and the sprinkler system in the apartment kicks in, soaking both of them. “Fuck!” Lena screams.

Kara looks around and her bottom lip starts to quiver. She starts to cry and sits on the floor, soaking wet. Lena sighs, turns off the fire alarm and the sprinklers with her tablet and kneels down in front of Kara.

“Oh, no, no, no. Please don’t cry.” Kara throws her head back and sobs even louder, causing Lena to recoil slightly from the volume. “Sweetheart, how about we get you out of these wet clothes?”

Kara refuses to look at her and curls up into herself more. Lena sighs and rubs her back.

“Hey, I’m sorry I yelled. I know it was an accident, but you need to be careful with your powers, okay? You’re not in control of them as well as you used to be.”

“ _Kara’s sorry_ ,” she says, threatening to start sobbing again.

“I know, it’s okay. Let’s get you cleaned up and we can have more nuggets. How does that sound?” She tries using the translator to speak in Kryptonese. “ _Bath, then nuggets_?”

Kara nods slowly and Lena picks her up, taking her to the bathroom. She starts filling up the tub with hot water and undresses Kara. She gets the bubble bath that Jess picked up and pours some into the tub and Kara looks at it in awe. When the water is high enough, Lena lifts Kara and drops her into the tub, pouring water on her and begins to wash her gently.

Kara splashes around and plays with a little tugboat that Jess bought her, making little noises and making Lena laugh. When they’re done, Lena drains the tub and wraps Kara in a fuzzy towel, drying her off.

“Okay, the nuggets are probably done by now,” she says, hoisting Kara up and sitting her down at the kitchen table. She takes the tray out of the oven and plates up the dino nuggets. “Do you want ketchup or anything, Kara?” She holds up the ketchup bottle and Kara shakes her head, so Lena brings the plate over and puts it in front of Kara, who reaches out and stuffs a whole nugget in her mouth. Lena chuckles and heads back to the kitchen to assemble her salad. She sits down next to the toddler and starts to eat, but catches Kara staring.

“What is it?”

“ _Is Lena sad_?”

Lena furrows her brow and shakes her head. “ _No, I’m not sad, honey. Why do you keep asking me that_?”

Kara stands up in her chair and reaches over to Lena’s face, pulling her cheeks up until she smiles. Lena laughs and gathers Kara in her arms, kissing her cheeks and blowing raspberries into her neck until she begs her to stop. She sits back down and takes another nugget, offering it to Lena.

“Thank you, darling,” Lena says, snatching the nugget up and popping it into her mouth. Kara grins and claps her hands together loudly. “You should probably eat some vegetables.” She offers Kara one of her carrots, but the toddler wrinkles her nose and sticks out her tongue.

“ _No_!”

“Come on, Kara. One carrot.” She offers it again, but Kara turns her head away.

Lena huffs and checks her translator.

“ _If you eat this carrot, you can have some ice cream after dinner._ ” Kara’s eyes get wide and she snatches the carrot off of Lena’s fork, gnawing on it with her baby teeth. Lena is not above bribing a child.

As cute as she is, Lena really needs Winn to figure out how to get Kara back to her normal age if not for any reason other than getting her best friend back as an adult. Also, she supposes, National City may need her, too.

//

The next day, Alex texts Lena and tells her that she has good news and to bring Kara into the DEO. Lena jumps out of bed and dresses Kara quickly and sets her up in her car seat. On the way there, she calls her clean-up crew and instructs them to tidy up her kitchen. She’ll deal with the counter later.

“Looks like you may be getting back to your old self today, Kara,” she says, looking in the rearview mirror. Kara wiggles a little in her seat and smiles gleefully. Lena admits that she might miss toddler Kara a little bit, but not as much as she misses adult Kara. She drives them to the DEO and gets through security with no issues. J’onn gave her access months ago the last time she had to help Winn with some coding to keep their holding cells from overheating.

She holds Kara’s hand as they walk into the lobby, where Alex, J’onn, and Winn meet them.

“Okay, kiddo, ready to get back to adulthood?” Winn asks and holds out his hand. Kara takes his hand with both of hers and allows herself to be led into one of the labs. She sits obediently in one of the cells and Winn closes the door behind her. He punches a few numbers into the pad and everyone backs up. Lena frowns slightly, not completely comfortable with the way the robot arm swings wildly. She’ll have to discuss that with Winn later.

The arm stops right in front of Kara and starts to power up and a bright beam shoots from it right into Kara and everyone covers their eyes. Again, the smoke settles and they wait with bated breath. A thin figure stands up as the smoke dissipates and she looks down and realizes she’s naked and screams.

“Shoot, Winn, go get a spare uniform in the locker room,” Alex yells at him. “Come here, Kara.” She grabs a lab coat and wraps it around her sister, who isn’t quite as tall as she usually is, but she’s definitely older than a toddler.

“What—what did you _do_ to me?” Kara screeches. “I’m telling Mom!”

Lena watches off to the side and when Kara looks up at her, she swears she sees cartoon animals scattering around her head and orchestral music ringing through the room.

“Hi, Lena,” Kara says wistfully and grins goofily.

“Um, hi Kara. I’m glad you’re able to speak in full sentences now,” she jokes. Winn rushes back in with a black shirt and some pants, handing them to Kara. Alex ushers her sister out of the room and Kara doesn’t take her eyes off of Lena the whole time. Winn grimaces and looks at J’onn, who shakes his head.

“I almost had it,” Winn says with a sigh. “Maybe you can help me with this, Lena.” His eyes plead with her and she chuckles and picks up his tablet, looking over his calculations. They spend the rest of the afternoon working when they’re interrupted by the sound of metal clattering on the floor. Lena looks over to see Kara throwing some sort of tantrum about something and Alex is trying to calm her down.

“I don’t _want_ to go home and rest! Why can’t I just stay here? It’s not like I’m in the way. I can help! Just tell me what to do.”

“Kara, you’ve been through a lot this past week. Plus, you’re still a kid. I think it’s best if you let us figure out what we need to do to get you back to your normal self,” Alex says calmly. “James will watch you.”

“A babysitter? Are you kidding me?” Kara yells, throwing another tray across the room. “I’m a teenager—I think. Anyway, I can look after myself.”

“She can come with me,” Lena says quietly. “I need to head into work, but I’m sure I can find her something to do.”

Kara’s eyes light up at the prospect of spending time with Lena and looks at Alex, who exhales deeply.

“If you’re sure, Lena. I don’t want to cause any trouble for you.”

“It’s no trouble,” she smiles. “You’ll be on your best behavior, right, Kara?”

Kara nods emphatically and salutes her sister. Lena snorts and escorts the teen out of the DEO headquarters and back to her car. On the way there, she stops at a store to grab a pair of glasses for Kara, because, even though she’s not an adult yet, she still looks similar enough to Supergirl that she would need a disguise. Lena looks at the glasses dubiously and wonders how they even work as a disguise and reminds herself to work on that in her lab later on.

When they arrive, Lena takes her private elevator up to her office and Kara is uncharacteristically quiet. The elevator dings and the doors slide open. As they walk out, Lena greets Jess and introduces Kara as yet another sibling of the family she’s been helping and Jess doesn’t question it.

“Would you like me to get some books or perhaps one of the tablets for her to use?”

“That would be great, thank you Jess.”

Kara looks around Lena’s office as if it’s the first time she’s been inside of it. Everything is new and shiny and she resists the urge to touch everything.

“I have a couple of meetings this afternoon, but you can stay in here and read if you’d like,” Lena says from behind her desk.

“O-okay,” Kara stutters. She’s blushing profusely and Lena raises her eyebrow slightly, but doesn’t mention it. Jess returns shortly after with a stack of books and a new iPad, setting them down on the coffee table. Kara sits on the couch and reads the titles of each book, pulling out one that looks interesting.

Lena looks over at Kara. “Oh, _Fahrenheit 451_ , that’s a good one. I had to read that in school.”

Kara continues blushing and flips through the first few pages, taking off her shoes and tucking her legs underneath herself. She reads quietly, stealing glances as Lena as she works. She puts the book down after a while and looks over.

“Hey, Lena?”

“Yes, Kara,” she replies, looking over and realizing her computer monitors are in the way, so she rolls her chair out.

“Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

Huh. She didn’t expect that question to come out of Kara’s mouth. She could have sworn that she and Kara had talked about it before.

“Uh, well, remember when we had the conversation about our exes a few months ago?”

Kara shakes her head. “I don’t really remember anything, other than being a kid.”

“Oh,” Lena responds. “So, you don’t remember anything that you and I have talked about? Anything we’ve done together?”

Kara shrugs. “I know we’re friends—or, at least, you’re friends with me as an adult, but I don’t remember details.”

Lena stands up and sits next to Kara, who visibly stiffens when she does.

“Well,” Lena continues, “being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company doesn’t really allow me the time for casual dating. Most of the people I meet are clients, partners, or people I don’t really care to know outside of the professional workspace. Does that make sense?”

Kara nods. Lena gets more comfortable and takes off her own heels before turning towards Kara.

“Well, what about you? Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

Kara snorts. “Me? Boyfriend? Gross.”

Lena laughs under her breath and looks at the young girl in front of her. She realizes that Kara never really had boyfriends before, none that she could remember, anyway. There had been a few close calls, like Cat’s son and James, but nothing ever really panned out and she wondered why. Kara was a beautiful woman. She was charming and sweet, thoughtful, kind of quirky, but funny. Anyone would be lucky to have her.

“You’re staring,” Kara comments, looking up at Lena, but not making eye contact.

There’s a knock on the door and Jess pokes her head in. “Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Luthor, but the board is ready for you.”

“That’s my cue,” Lena says with a shrug. “This meeting shouldn’t go too long, but if I’m not back in time for lunch, go ahead and order a pizza, just have them charge it to me. I should have some menus in my desk drawer.”

Kara nods and watches Lena leave the office. She lets out a deep breath and buries her nose in her book, trying to ignore the warmth she feels all over her skin and… lower. Kara shifts uncomfortably, trying to read, but every word she glosses over floats away immediately and she finds herself thinking about Lena again.

 _God, brain, can you not?_ She chastises herself. Far be it from her to deny the beauty of a woman, but it’s _Lena_ for Rao’s sake. Sure, she doesn’t remember their friendship at all, but she’s not about to crush on her best friend, regardless. Definitely not going to crush on her. Why was she so warm? She tries to tell her teenage hormones to chill, but they didn’t listen. She stands up suddenly and walks over to the bar. Grabbing a glass and filling it with ice, she takes a bottled water out of the mini fridge and pours it into the glass, draining it instantly. She really needed Winn to get her back to normal, whatever that was. Why was she so hungry?

Kara peeks out of Lena’s office and gazes down the empty hallway, listening for any movement. The only thing she can really hear are various heartbeats and some conversations that don’t hold her interest. She can’t quite separate them just yet, so it’s just a cacophony of noise. The office door closes behind her when she walks back in and she makes her way over to Lena’s desk, which is completely cleared off of any office supplies, save for one single pen. Kara notes the lack of personalization and opens the desk drawers in search for the menus Lena mentioned earlier.

While she flips through some papers, one catches her eye and she lifts it out of the desk. It looks like a greeting card—from herself. She’s thanking Lena for allowing her to interview her for CatCo, dated two years ago. Kara continues looking in the drawer and finds a whole stack of cards and little notes all to Lena from her. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, notes from flowers, handwritten notes, a post-it where Kara drew a cat with the caption “not kitten around.” Why does Lena have all of these? Or, a better question would be, why did she write so many notes to her?

A knock at the door startles Kara and she whips the drawer right out of the desk and swings her arms, sending the drawer right into the wall of Lena’s office.

“Shoot!”

She rushes over to the wall and blocks the dent from view as Jess peeks her head in.

“Hi, Kara, Lena sent me in to check on you. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yep! Everything’s just peachy. I was about to order a pizza. Does Lena want anything? Do you? I can order a couple different kinds,” Kara rambles, hoping Jess will interrupt her and answer her barrage of questions.

“We’re getting our lunch catered, so Ms. Luthor won’t need anything, but thank you. Go ahead and just order whatever you want.”

“Okay, thanks! I’ll, uh, get right on that,” Kara says smiling widely. Jess gives her a strange look, but nods and closes the door again. Kara lets out a deep breath and looks at the damage behind her. She sighs and orders her pizzas before heading downstairs to R&D. She walks around the empty halls and finds a door to one of the labs and a scientist nearly bumps into her.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be down here,” he says.

“Oh, I’m a guest of Lena’s—I mean, Ms. Luthor’s. I’m just looking for some supplies to repair a wall.”

The scientist looks at her skeptically. “I’m sorry, but without prior clearance, I can’t let you in here. Please make your way back upstairs.” He turns to leave and Kara uses her super speed to run inside the room before he can see her. She looks around for whatever she needs and finds some sandpaper, wall putty, and a putty knife. She gathers everything and leaves before anyone sees her.

Kara rushes back to the office and checks out the hole again. She uses her heat vision to clear off the stucco on the wall and sands it down. She then puts netting up before spreading the putty across it and stands up to wait for it to dry. Noticing a big potted plant, Kara drags it over and places it in front of the repaired wall. Right on time, there’s another knock at the door and Kara goes to open it. The delivery guy hands her a couple of pizza boxes and Kara gives him his tip before placing them on the coffee table.

A few minutes later, Lena walks in just as Kara stuffs her face with two slices of pizza stacked on each other.

Lena laughs. “That’s a new method I haven’t seen before.”

Kara chews and swallows, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m hungry. Do you want some?”

Lena shakes her head. “No, thank you. I just ate. I came to see how you were doing, see if you needed anything.”

“No, I’m fine. I’ve just been reading and I went exploring a little. Everything’s perfectly fine.” She glances behind Lena at the plant and the wall nervously. Lena looks over her shoulder, not remembering the plant being there before.

“Okay, that’s good to hear. I just have one more meeting and then I can take you back to Alex’s. Sound good?”

“Yeah, sure,” Kara replies, chewing on her pizza stack.

“All right, good. I’ll be back in about an hour. Stay out of trouble,” Lena smiles and squeezes Kara’s shoulder as she leaves. Kara watches Lena leave and her vision starts to blur and she accidentally uses her x-ray vision on the CEO. Kara gasps and slaps her hand over her eyes, turning beet red, and feeling horrible for not being able to control her powers completely and for invading her friend’s privacy. Winn really needs to figure this whole thing out.

Once the coast is clear, Kara exhales deeply and is hyper-aware of the area that Lena just touched. She sits down on the couch and buries her nose in a book, reading the words on the page, but they soon start to blend into each other and all she can think about is Lena’s face and neck and _dear god_ those hands. She flips to the next page of her book, but it’s useless. All she can concentrate on is the heat radiating from her body and the uncomfortable feeling between her legs.

She tries to distract herself by finishing up the wall repairs. Using the sandpaper she found in the lab, she sands down the wall and sees that it’s a different color from the rest of the wall. Kara rolls her eyes and huffs in frustration. She steps out onto Lena’s balcony and looks down. L-Corp is _really_ high up. As she’s about to step onto the railing, she hears Lena screaming her name from inside the office.

“Kara! What the hell are you doing?”

“I, uh,” Kara stutters as she steps off of the railing. “I wanted to see if I could fly.”

“Jesus, Kara, how about you try that from somewhere that’s not at the top of a 40-story building? What were you thinking?”

Kara hangs her head and stares at the floor. “I’m sorry. I just—I put a hole in your wall and I was trying to fix it. I was going to go get some paint and finish it before you noticed.” Kara lifts the massive planter and puts it back where it used to be. The wall really didn’t look that bad, but Kara was embarrassed.

“Kara,” Lena says exasperatedly. “I have maintenance people who can take care of that. I’m not mad, but you just need to talk to me, okay?”

Kara nods and looks at the drawer that she left in the corner of the room. She walks over to pick it up and slides it back into the desk. “We were pretty good friends, huh?”

Lena smiles at her. “Yeah, we were—are. We still are.”

“I know it must suck - excuse my language - to not have me be, well, me. I’m sorry I don’t remember anything about our friendship.” She thinks back on all of the cards and notes she saw. Her entire friendship and history with Lena is just gone. The guilt she feels is growing, because she knows that Lena probably misses her friend terribly and Kara just isn’t her, not anymore.

“It’s really okay, Kara. Come on, I’ll take you back to Alex’s.”

Lena packs up her things and Kara gathered the pizza boxes to throw out on the way to the elevators. As they start walking toward the elevators down the hall, there’s a loud crash that comes from the board room that Lena had been in all day. Kara blocks Lena from the blast and as the dust settles, a form walks out from the rubble.

“Hello, Supergirl. Remember me?” the man says.

“Uh, actually I don’t.”

“Oh, right, forgot the whole memory loss that comes with the de-aging. I’m Carl Draper, but the media calls me the Master Jailer. You interrupted my judgement once before, but I’m going to finish it.” He throws down what appears to be a flash bomb, but it turns the entire room red. He lifts his hand and armor appears over his body and he walks over to grab Lena.

“Let go of me!” Lena yells.

“I’ll need some collateral. Don’t follow me, Supergirl, or else she dies.” Master Jailer lifts Lena up and throws her into an airborne vehicle before he climbs in after her and they take off. Before Kara can follow them, a small cylinder gets thrown through the window and a blast knocks her back into a wall. Her ears are ringing and there’s smoke everywhere. Frustratingly, her eyes won’t focus and she feels pain all over her body. Realizing her powers are gone, Kara crawls to the elevator and takes the long journey to the bottom floor. Alex is already there with J’onn and they ask her what happened.

“Some guy named Carl Draper took Lena. I have to help her,” Kara says weakly. “He threw some kind of grenade and I can’t do anything. I don’t have any powers.”

“Red sun grenade,” Alex says gravely. “It’s only temporary. Let’s get you back to the DEO and try to figure out our plan of attack.”

//

“Why are we just sitting here? Lena’s out there and she needs our help.” Kara says, starting to pace around the DEO lobby and zipping around recklessly as her powers start to come back.

“Whoa there, slow down,” James says, holding his hands up. “We can’t just go out there, guns blazing. First, we don’t even know where he is. Second, we don’t know what type of weaponry he has. If he’s the one who turned you into a baby, who knows what else he has up his sleeve?”

Winn nods in agreement. “Trombusans are highly intelligent and their alien tech is out of this world,” he chuckles at his own joke. Kara is not amused. “Sorry, okay, I’ve made a few adjustments and used some of Lena’s calculations that we worked on the last time she was here. I think we have a good chance at getting Kara back to her normal age with her normal range of powers.”

“I need you to be one hundred and ten percent sure, Winn,” J’onn says. “We can’t afford another setback and who knows what this next age jump could do.”

“Yeah, of course, Lena was a big help. I’m positive it’ll work this time—reverse the effects of the red sun grenade and restore her powers. Kara, go stand in the cell while I set everything up.”

Kara does as she’s told and crosses her arms impatiently. Winn types a few things into the keyboard and then gives her a thumbs up. Like the two times before, the robotic arm begins moving and points directly at Kara’s chest. After Winn types more commands into the computer, the arm begins to power up and glow. Alex winces a little and turns her head as the beam shoots out and fires at Kara. Smoke fills the cell and everyone holds their breath.

The smoke dissipates and Kara steps forward. Her jeans are a little too short and her t-shirt is nearly a crop top. James holds out her suit for her and Kara speeds over to it with practiced ease and changes.

“Okay, I’m going to go look for Lena.”

“Do you know where she is, Supergirl?” J’onn asks.

“No, but I’ll find her. Meet me at the location where I was... babyfied.” Kara flies out of the roof exit of the DEO and the rest get their gear and head out soon after.

Kara closes her eyes and concentrates, trying to locate Lena’s heartbeat or voice. She flies all around the city until she hears the familiar beat exactly where she told her friends to meet her. She lands outside of the abandoned building where she was first turned into a baby. She looks inside each window and floats up to the second floor to look inside. She can’t see anything, but she can hear that Lena is there somewhere. Kara opens one of the windows and steps inside slowly. She enters a room in the corner of the building, trying to listen for any movement and she still only hears Lena’s heartbeat.

“Lena?” Kara calls out.  

“Ah, Supergirl, finally back to adulthood. I should have known you wouldn’t heed my warning,” Carl Draper says from a darkened doorway, holding a weapon up to Lena’s temple. He’s wearing a large suit of armor that’s glowing red. Lena’s heartbeat is racing and Kara clenches her jaw, resisting the urge to fly into the alien and plow him straight into the ground.

“Let her go. I’m assuming it’s me you want,” Kara snarls, balling her fists.

“Actually, I could use both of you. You see, I’ve perfected my de-aging weapon to make it so I send you so far back that you haven’t even been conceived yet. I don’t expect you to understand the technicalities, so let me just say that you’ll cease to exist completely. So, I’m only going to ask this once, either both you and your girlfriend here come with me, or I make it so you neither of you were ever born.”

Kara quickly examines Carl’s suit. She knows that Trombusans draw their power from a red sun, so he must have found a way to harness that power with the suit. If she can just get him far away enough from innocent people, she may be able to cause them both to solar flare and, hopefully, it will cancel one another out. Of course, she’s never done something like this before, so she has no idea what the results will be. Lena can tell that Kara is trying to devise a plan, so she raises her eyebrow and eyes the window behind the both of them.

With a sudden motion, Lena is pushing herself and Carl back toward the window and throwing both of them out of it. Kara gasps and rushes toward them, grabbing Lena’s hand before she falls and setting her down on the street where Alex and other DEO agents are waiting. She takes off again and rams headfirst into Carl, pushing him back across the street, his feet digging deep into the asphalt.

“You won’t defeat me, Supergirl. Your judgement will come.”

 “We’ll see about that, Draper,” Kara responds before wrapping her arms around the other man’s armor and torpedoing them both through the air, away from the city. As they rise higher and higher, Kara’s thoughts immediately go to Lena. This man had threatened her life. She didn’t want him to ever be anywhere near her again. Kara stops mid-flight, high above National City. Everything is so tiny, she can’t distinguish any of the buildings or landmarks. She takes a deep breath and concentrates. A light yellow aura starts to engulf both of them.

“What are you doing?” Carl shouts, trying to wriggle out of Kara’s grasp, but she’s too strong. “Stop! You’ll kill us both.”

Kara ignores him and she starts shaking until there’s a loud blast that echoes throughout the city. Both Kara and Carl descend toward the ground, unconscious, not feeling themselves hit the ground.

//

Kara wakes up bright lights shining uncomfortably in her eyes. She pushes the sun bed lid out of the way and tries to get up, but she’s wobbly.

“Whoa, hang on, Supergirl,” James says, holding her steady. “You’re not fully healed yet.”

“Wh-what happened? How long have I been asleep?”

James sits her back down on the bed and pulls up a chair. “You solar flared and it was enough to drain Carl Draper’s suit, so both of you lost your powers and fell about twenty stories. You’ve been out for three days.”

“Where’s Lena? Is she okay?” Kara’s eyes were wide with concern. All she remembered was catching Lena as she fell out the top floor of the building and a big explosion.

“She’s fine. She’s been coming in to check on you every day. In fact, she should be coming in soon.”

Kara nods. True to his word, Lena walks up shortly after and she looks visibly relieved when she sees Kara awake. James looks between the both of them and excuses himself quietly.

“Hi,” Lena says, standing in the doorway.

“Hi,” Kara replies, standing up and taking a step closer. “How are you?”

Lena looks at her strangely. “I should be asking _you_ that. Are you okay?”

“I feel okay, you know, aside from solar flaring my powers away. Is Draper alive?”

Lena nods. “He’s being held downstairs. His powers are gone, as well, and the suit he made is out of commission. Alex allowed me to take a look at it, though, to see if I could use the tech.”

Kara looks up at Lena and actually _looks_ at her for the first time. The purple rings underneath her eyes show that she hasn’t been sleeping and she’ll bet that Lena’s been wearing the same clothes for the past three days.

“You look tired, Lena.”

Lena chuckles and rubs her eyes. “Yeah, well, my best friend finally got back to being an adult and nearly died, I nearly died, and there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done – particularly repairing a giant hole in my company’s building.”

“Still, you should sleep,” Kara responds with a concerned look. “If Alex discharges me, will you go home and rest?”

Lena hesitates slightly and agrees. She asks if Kara’s ready to go now. Kara smiles at her and nods. Both of them leave the room in search of Alex or J’onn and find them in one of the meeting rooms. Alex looks up at them and frowns.

“What are you doing up? You’re not fully healed yet.”

“Alex, I’ve been under the sun bed for three days. I’m tired and I want to go home. Also, you clearly haven’t been taking care of Lena and making sure she eats and sleeps, so _someone_ has to.”

Alex raises an eyebrow and folds her arms across her chest. “Okay, you try telling Lena to do something she doesn’t want to do. I tried to pry her away from your bedside multiple times and she refused to leave.”

Lena feels her face get warm and swallows thickly. “If we’re finished talking about how stubborn I am, I would definitely like to have a shower and a full meal. If it’ll make you feel better, Alex, I’ll keep an eye on Kara.”

Eventually, Alex relents, but she makes Kara promise to text her if anything changes. Lena walks them out to her car and they climb in. She can’t describe the relief she feels having her best friend back and being able to see and talk to her.

“So,” Kara says, breaking the silence as they walk up to Lena’s penthouse. “Did I do anything embarrassing while I was a baby?”

Lena laughs. “You don’t remember?”

Kara shrugs and holds the lobby door open for her. “I remember bits and pieces, but not everything. I remember running around naked.”

The memory causes Lena to bark out a laugh. “Yes, you did that on a few separate occasions, usually around bath time. You also sneezed on my ex.”

Kara looks up at her, horrified. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry – well, I’m sorry to him, but—oh no, should I send an apology note?”

Lena laughs heartily as she unlocks her apartment door to let them in. “Don’t worry, it was well-deserved. _She_ and I didn’t exactly end things on good terms.”

The door handle breaks off in Kara’s hand and Lena looks over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh. Oh geez, I’m so sorry. Um, let me just fly out and get a new one,” Kara stumbles around toward Lena’s balcony, still holding the broken door handle.

Lena grins and shakes her head. “Kara, don’t worry about it. The building super should be around. I’ll just give him a call and he’ll come fix it for me.”

Kara closes the balcony doors and sets the handle on the kitchen counter gently. Lena’s never talked to Kara about her ex-girlfriends before, mostly because none of the relationships had ever really meant anything, so it was like they didn’t count.

Kara looks like she’s thinking about something and then her eyes widen. “Oh, when I was a teenager, I asked about your boyfriends. I didn’t even ask about girlfriends. I didn’t even think—how very heteronormative of me.”

“Kara, relax. I don’t make it public knowledge, but I don’t hide it, either. Do you want to change out of your suit? I can try to find some clothes for you to wear,” Lena says, changing the subject and walking toward her bedroom.

“Uh, yeah sure, that would be nice.”

Kara watches Lena walk deeper into her apartment and she tries to remember more about what they talked about when she was a teenager. She doesn’t remember much, but she does remember how she felt and— _oh_. The warmth is back, as is the fluttering in her stomach. She sits down on Lena’s couch quickly and crosses her legs, trying to temper the aching, throbbing, feeling. This is so awkward. It’s almost like her teenage hormones didn’t fully leave her adult body. When Lena comes back with a pair of sweats and a worn sweatshirt, Kara doesn’t move and lets Lena come to her. She squeaks out a thanks and unhooks her cape, folding it into a small square and laying it on the cushion next to her.

“I’m just going to take a quick shower. I shouldn’t be long. You’re more than welcome to take one, too.”

Kara knows, she _knows_ , that Lena doesn’t mean take a shower together, but that doesn’t stop Kara’s dumb hormonal brain from thinking about Lena naked, dripping wet, pushed against the—

“Kara?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, thanks. I’ll, uh, I’ll just wait here and see how I feel.”

Lena nods and heads back into her bedroom, closing the door to her bathroom behind her. When Kara hears the spray of the shower, she throws her head back onto the back of the couch and groans. Before she had gotten babyfied, Kara was able to ignore any romantic feelings she had for Lena, or anyone for that matter. She’s Supergirl! There are more important things to worry about. Pushing the intrusive thoughts aside, Kara grumbles and changes into the clothes that Lena brought out for her. She smells the sweatshirt and it smells like laundry detergent, but it’s _Lena’s_ laundry detergent. She briefly thinks about what it would smell like after Lena had worn it. The sound of the shower stops and Kara curls up on the couch, acting like she wasn’t just thinking about her best friend in a very non-friend-like way.

A few minutes later, Lena walks out of the bedroom, drying her hair off with a towel, wearing a similar pair of sweats and sweatshirt, padding around the room barefoot.

“Shower is all yours if you’d like. I left a towel on the counter.”

Kara hops up from the couch and quickly walks past Lena and shuts the bathroom door, heaving a deep breath out of her lungs. Lena is her friend.

Her _friend_.

So what if her teenage self had a crush on adult Lena? That didn’t mean anything.

Kara turns the shower on, undresses and folds her clothes neatly, setting them on top of the towel. She climbs into the shower and lets the water trickle down her body. Her body is sore and full of aches. Maybe Alex was right and she should have spent more time under the sun bed, but no, she needed to get out of there. Plus, she’s in Lena’s apartment. That by itself was worth feeling like her body was going to crumble onto the shower floor.

With a sigh, Kara washes herself and her hair, making sure to get all of the blood and sweat off of her. When she finishes, she puts the sweats and sweatshirt back on and wraps her hair in the towel. By the time she walks out of the bedroom, Lena’s sitting on her couch with a laptop across her legs, looking deep in thought.

“Do you ever stop working?” Kara asks teasingly.

Lena looks up and smiles, “Never.” She sets the laptop on the coffee table. “Are you hungry? I can make you something.”

“Actually, I’m kind of beat. I think I’d like to take a nap and then maybe eat after, if that’s okay,” Kara says with a yawn.

“Of course,” Lena smiles. She takes one of Kara’s hands and leads back into the bedroom. She turns down the covers and leaves Kara on one side of the bed while she walks to the other side. Kara nervously stares down at the mattress and wrings her fingers. Lena notices her hesitation. “Is something wrong?”

“We’re sleeping in the same bed?”

Lena shrugs. “Yeah, is that a problem?”

“No! No problem at all, just… making sure.” Kara climbs into the bed and it’s large enough to leave enough space for Jesus between the two of them – two Jesus’, even. Kara pulls the sheets up to her chin and she stares at the ceiling. She can tell Lena is looking at her, but she doesn’t move her head an inch, because if she does, she’ll get lost in those green eyes and it’ll all be over.

“Kara?”

Kara hears Lena’s heart speed up, which doesn’t help her nerves at all. She swallows the lump in her throat and turns her head to the side. “Yeah?”

“I noticed some things when you were younger. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, or turn it into something that it’s not, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

Here it comes.

Lena takes a breath. “Um, where to start. I guess when you were an infant, I could get you to stop crying if I kissed you on the top of the head. It only seemed to work for me. Then, when you were a toddler, you didn’t want to leave my side. Now, neither of these things is completely out of the ordinary, just things I noticed. And when you were a teenager, you wouldn’t make eye contact with me and you blushed a lot, typical teenager stuff, or so I thought. So then, when I fell out of the building and you saved me, I saw the look in your eyes. You wanted to kill Carl Draper. I’ve never seen you like that before.”

“He was going to hurt you,” Kara reasons quietly.

“It isn’t the first time my life has been threatened, Kara,” Lena replies, reaching over slowly to graze her fingers down Kara’s arm. Kara grips the sheets between her fingers and blinks back the emotions that threaten to pour out of her.

“I know, but,” Kara breathes, “it’s the first time I’ve been able to do something about it. I mean, I know I kept your helicopter from crashing and saved you from getting thrown out of your building that other time, but that was different! I don’t know, I just got so _mad_. He kidnapped you and threatened you. I just—I couldn’t let him hurt you.”

Lena’s hand moves up Kara’s arm slowly and she cups her cheek, turning the Kryptonian’s head to face her. Kara’s brow remains furrowed, but it begins to soften when she looks into Lena’s eyes.

“I don’t ever want anything to happen to you,” Kara says softly, her eyes darting lower to Lena’s mouth.

“Always the hero,” Lena says wryly. She rubs her thumb down Kara’s cheek, but doesn’t make a move, wanting to allow Kara to decide whether or not her feelings were more than just teenage hormones.

“I think that, maybe, I might like you more than a friend, but I don’t really know how to do this. What if I mess it up?”

Lena laughs, placing her hand on Kara’s chest. “Kara, I’ve been single for most of my adult life, mostly because of the fact that I’m terrified of failure. The fact that we’re friends – best friends – and we know how the other works already puts us a step ahead. We don’t need to rush into anything, or label it, or anything you’re not comfortable with, okay?”

Kara nods and turns onto her side, huddling close to Lena and she can feel the heat radiating off of Kara’s body. It’s comforting, almost as comforting as knowing that her best friend reciprocates her feelings, even if they have no idea where to take it from here. Both of them are completely useless when it comes to relationships, but they’ll figure it out together.

Kara makes a contented sound and breaks the silence that fell between them.

“So, what was it like bathing me and changing my diapers?”

A pillow flies across the bed, right smack-dab onto Kara’s face and roars of laughter fill the room. Kara’s pretty sure that, no matter what age, she’d always be in love with Lena Luthor. 


End file.
